Stars & Gripes

It’s taken time but the law has finally caught up with Rubber Duck: drivers across the pond now have to use an Elog, a US version of the tachograph

- Lucy Radley

Something huge is happening across the pond but, as with most transport industry innovations in North America, there’s nothing new about it. For those who don’t follow or have little interest in such things, over in the US they’ve still been on log books, the majority of distance drivers being paid based on mileage.

How this perfect recipe for the widespread flouting of Hours of Service (HoS) laws has been allowed to continue for so long is a bit of a mystery, to be honest, but in December 2017 – albeit with a grace period through to April 2018 – the law finally changed and an American version of the tachograph, Electronic Logging Devices, or Elogs, came into mandatory use.

Computer says no

Needless to say, there’s been exactly the same kind of uproar from drivers as there was here in the early ’80s, and, to be fair, there are actually some valid points being made.